Against the current
by Katie237
Summary: One-shot inspired by the 5x01 Comic-Con trailer: Barry has fallen in the water and Nora is desperate to find her missing and wounded father before she would lose him, especially after just meeting him. Oh, and, let's not forget about how she would cease to exist if her father was to die right now.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note: I wrote over 90% of it in late July/early August after seeing the first season 5 trailer where we see Barry coming out of the water with his season 1 suit. My imagination went wild with all sort of scenarios that could lead to this, but the closer we got to the premiere, the less my little draft was making sense. That's why I kept it hidden for a long, long time and almost chose to delete it, but I decided to give it a chance.**

 **Consider that an ''inspired by'' story and not a ''speculation'' story. Hope you'll enjoy it.**

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''Guys where is he? I can't see him,'' frantically called Nora, panic rising fast as her rapid breathing could clearly be heard by everyone in the cortex.

Moving up and down the river shore, Nora's feet were barely touching the ground as she was scanning the agitated water for any sign of her father. She couldn't lose him, and it wasn't just because she would be erased out of existence if he was to die before her conception, which was already a big downside; the speedster didn't want to imagine losing him again after never meeting the hero in the first place while growing up.

''The suit's sensors are malfunctioning, I can't pinpoint his location at the moment. What's going on out there?'' Loudly asked Cisco

"Barry got stabbed and fell in the river!" Shouted Nora, alarmed, "it wasn't supposed to happen," she stuttered through her panic shaking lips at the team in the laboratory.

It didn't happen the first time around, or at least she didn't remember stories of it happening against that particular Meta. Was all of this because of her? Or was she going into a frenzy for nothing since that was already part of the original timeline?

"By whom?" Asked Cisco's voice.

By who? Who cared? By their meta with the black mask of course! Nora felt frustration rising inside of her and mixing with her concerns, but her still working rational part of her brain reminded her to try and not bite everyone's head off. It was a valid question, but it would be a way better question after they had ensured Barry was going to be alright.

"His powers might have messed up with the suit," she theorized to her new friends before stopping an instant, after running at the top of the bridge to scan the water, desperately searching for any resurfacing form.

"What are you talking about? Where's Barry?" Confusedly inquired Caitlin, apprehension all over her every word.

"He fell off the bridge and into the water after getting stabbed. I can't find him," swiftly resumed Nora just before she heard Cisco's voice calling out to his best friend and urging him to answer.

"I already tried it-," she quickly added, a tad annoyed. All of this wasn't helping, " we need to find him now, he might be unconscious and he might drown,"

"Calm down, Nora, we're coming," assured Cisco before moving away from the mic and speaking words, that the young speedster couldn't quite understand, to someone else.

"Screw that!" Suddenly shouted Nora's voice

The young speedster didn't hear, nor cared, about what got screamed in her ears as she plunged into the cold water and opened her mouth in shock of the sizeable thermic difference. Damn, while this wasn't the hottest day, that water was freezing!

Fighting her way back to the surface, not even remembering falling entirely under in the first place, Nora kicked her legs hard in the water. As she was approaching to the surface, she didn't do it without taking a good as possible look around in desperate search of her father.

Nothing. Maybe the current had taken the Flash away. Maybe Barry had sunken to the bottom. Or, perhaps, he was really close but she couldn't see him because her vision was being too obscured by all sand of the river's bottom moving around. Under these circumstances, it was near impossible for the young lady speedster to see very far around.

Gasping for air as she broke through the surface, Nora's eyes darted around while kicking harder and throwing her arm forward, struggling, as the current was threatening to take her away too. Refusing to let herself fall under the grasp of the elements, the young woman increased her effort to stay above the water and cursed under her breath, swearing at her own stupidity. Why couldn't she think before acting? Her mom used to tell her stories about how her dad used to do the same thing when he was around her age and this little thought was something that made her smile, even in her situation. Except, that reflection wasn't going to help her, nor Barry for that matter.

What pushed her to jump into the water in the first place? She could run on water if she had enough speed gathered before making contact with the cold liquid, but, right now, she had nothing solid to put her feet on to get her motion started. At this very moment, she was just as useless and powerless as anyone else. Her earpiece was filled with incomprehensible voices and statics as she swam against the current.

"N..'ra? ..d...c'py? XS, can you hear us?"

It was Cisco's voice, she was sure of it. Fighting the water, the young West-Allen mentally debated her next action for a few moments 'til her comms finally managed to register a full sentence;

"We spotted him; he's east of the bridge. Where are you?"

Her heart clenched in her chest for a second thanks to a weird mixture of emotions; relief, anguish, guilt...

Vibe had Barry in his sight, which was great, but was he alive? Nora couldn't deny how mad she was at herself for managing to be utterly useless in the rescue operation as her impulsivity led her to make more mistakes. Like she hadn't accomplished enough of these already in 2018.

Fighting against the water, the young woman redirected herself toward the shore. Finally finding a calm enough spot of the river where she wasn't in any more danger of being taken away, Barry and Iris' daughter rose her right hand to her earpiece and said, breathless; "I'm ok, on my way."

 *****FLASHFLASHFLASH*****

 _Moments earlier:_

When Cisco landed on the river's side, alongside the Elongated Man, he didn't lose a second to scrutinize his surrounding and the agitated water in search of his best friend and the newest addition to their team.

"Nora, where are you? Did you find him?" He asked, pressing his earpiece.

Static was the only answer he got.

"Nora? Are you there?"

Nothing, again. Both Cisco and Ralph looked at each other with the same thought in their mind; were they going to need to rescue two members of the West-Allen family on the same mission?

"Ralph, go east and search the river and shore for Barry, I'll do the same going west," instructed the engineer to his friend.

"What about...?"

"Let's locate Barry first," said Cisco before heading in the opposite direction while activating his comm again; "Nora? Do you copy?...XS, can you hear me?"

Sighing as silence was all he got, again, Cisco carefully examined the river, looking for anything, any clue, of his friend's whereabouts. The sight of a red figure slowly making his way to the shore, only a couple of feet away from him, was the most beautiful thing Cisco had ever seen.

Whatever he said to his comms to inform his friends of his finding left his memory the instant he said the words as he was too busy opening a breach and jumping in it. Reappearing on the other side of it, he was just in time to see Barry, on all fours, dragging himself out of the water.

"Hey man," he said, slowly kneeling to be by his friend's level who acted like he didn't even see Vibe.

Instead, the hero jumped on his feet with one swift moment and started looking around, disoriented and exhausted.

Cisco's brow furrowed.

"Barry? You ok?" He asked, getting up. Of course, he wasn't ok, Nora just said he got stabbed! Except, there wasn't any hole in the suit that Cisco could see right now, at least not in the front of the suit.

''Nora-'' whispered Barry for a second before his knees buckled down and gravity claimed his heavy body that started failing forward, only to get stopped by his best friend awkwardly catching him.

''She's ok, you'll be ok too.'' answered back Vibe, fighting his own anxiety, as he lowered his best friend body to the ground before reaching out for his comms, "I got him, going to the lab now!"

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 **A/N: What do you guys think? Comments are really, really appreciated.**

 **I used to have a bit more for that, but I'm not sure I'll write it.** **Also, remember that this is 100% me, I didn't use a Beta for this as I didn't think I would put it online.**


	2. AUTHOR'S NOTE

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **Hello everyone! Has it really been over a year since I left this story unfinished? *Gasp***

 **On my way out of Fanfiction, guilt caught me as I looked at how many people seemed to have loved that story VS my last two that are abandoned (E** **leventh Hour that didn't have a single person reading the last chapter in full or that Crisis' short story that wasn't anywhere near as good as it should've been). Except, this story was inspired by a trailer that came out 1 and a half years ago, with a character who came and went (Nora), which makes this story completely outdated.**

 **Despite all of this, is there anyone interested in an ending for that story before I stop writing?**


	3. Chapter 2

A few seconds. That's how long it took for Vibe, the interdimensional metahuman, to gather the form of his fallen best friend by taking a firm grip under his armpits, and to drag him into a newly appeared breach. Most of the time, mere seconds aren't enough to impact someone's life on a day to day basis, but under certain crucial circumstances, it could mean the difference between life or death. And, sadly, when superheroes were involved, it was more often the latter.

At this particular moment, unfolding before the breacher's eyes, this brief period was all that was needed for Barry's condition to deteriorate. He started coughing once, then twice, then another time without any foreseeable stop. This sound was the one that filled Cisco's ears as he stepped out of the portal, once reaching his destination, while still dragging the unconscious Barry Allen in front of him.

A sound came from behind him, but the only thing the metahuman cared about in this very instant was the short and shallow breathing of his best friend while tremors ran down the red figure's spine. Barry's coughing fit didn't seem to be getting any better. A hitching made itself known inside Cisco's throat as he carefully listened to the hero's struggles to get oxygen in and out of his constricted throat; shouldn't Barry be fine by now? Was it simply because of the adrenaline? The facts were that the hero pulled himself out of the water himself a moment ago and even found the strength to get back up for a hot second there. Shouldn't this be a good sign? Was it simply because of the adrenaline?

The hero's whole body suddenly shook, and an audible gulp was heard at the same time that Caitlin came rushing from behind the computer. The shock of the sudden apparition of an unconscious and choking Barry Allen shook her for an instant, but she managed to get a grip on herself and go into full doctor mode and pushed aside all emotions.

"Lie him on his side. Now!" She sharply ordered with a commanding authority that only fools would ignore.

It was impossible to deny that the engineer was more than talented in many areas of expertise, but for all things medical and health-related, he knew better than to get in the doctor's way. Especially when his best friend's life was at stake. Cisco was more than happy to comply and obey Caitlin's command in the blink of an eye, by swiftly deposing the hero's upper body on the ground and turning him on his side with the help of the young woman wearing her white and grey short sleeve printed mini shift dress.

Before she even made it to the ground and on the other side of the speedster, Caitlin quickly managed to spot the new drops of water running out of the corner of Barry's mouth and cascading down his already wet features while spasms appeared on the unconscious hero's throat. It didn't take a world-renowned surgeon to predict what was going to happen or understand that the Scarlet Speedster's body was making great efforts to keep the extra liquid from joining the rest inside his lungs.

Indeed, when the next violent tremor ran through the whole hero's body, Barry's mouth opened completely and expelled an impressive quantity of partly muddy river's water on the cortex's ground and washed over the doctor's legs placed in front of him. Caitlin couldn't care less as her whole focus was on the health of the CSI who kept on shaking and vomiting a little extra water at every spasm.

"Barry?" Inquired the host of the dormant ice Meta as her left hand went for the unconscious man's left shoulder and shook it slightly. No reaction.

She shook harder and still didn't get any answer.

Meanwhile, the woman wasn't the only one getting her knees wet as Cisco was also feeling an uncomfortable sensation growing underneath him as he was on the ground behind his best friend. Except, when he looked down, he realized with horror that the growing pool was too sticky to be water, and it also was way too red, crimson red.

"Humm, Cait?" said Vibe, in a very calm and overly detached tone as his feelings were struggling to catch up with all the information overwhelming his mind.

No doubt that panic was going to take over at any time.

Now that the speedster was lying on his right side and his back was visible to his friend, Cisco finally managed to spot the wound that Nora spoke of earlier, and it wasn't a pretty sight. There was a gaping hole situated on Barry's lower back, and it was gushing blood at an alarming pace.

The doctor's head rose up at her name, her features tensed with controlled worry, and looked at Cisco while asking, "was he conscious at any point?"

If Nora shouting about losing sight of her father was any indication of when the speedster went under the current, Barry had been in the water for at least a full minute. Maybe a little more. That window was long enough time to swallow a sufficient amount of water to cause potential problems, assuming his head stayed underwater for most of the time, a situation that might happen if the speedster was-

The doctor's eyes suddenly widened as she suddenly remembered what Nora shouted on the comms; she said Barry's been stabbed before falling into the water. Caitlin glance finally met her friend's eyes and understood what he was trying to say earlier when he called her name.

Almost inhumanly fast for a none-speedster, Caitlin jumped to her feet and rushed around the wounded man to join Vibe. Finally making her way behind Barry, she failed to keep at bay the gasp that erupted out of her mouth at the view of the impressive amount of blood leaving the man's body despite the gauntlet-wearing hands pressing around the knife wound. The precious liquid was freely flowing through the helpless fingers.

"Help me get him on the bed, NOW!" She shouted, her lips trembling and threatening her emotional wall to crumble into pieces.

Papers from the main desk suddenly flew all over, while flashes of purple and yellow lightning invaded the room. It was more than time for S.T.A.R. Labs to invest in some good paperweights.

"Dad!" Shouted the young purple speedster who made her dramatic entrance while dropping Elongated Man right next to her.

The pool of blood from underneath the crimson figure was now not only appearing from behind but also peeking on the other side and letting his presence known to everyone in the room.

Feeling the adrenaline rushing through his veins, and not making any effort to try and hide the panic in his face, Ralph rushed forward to help however he could. The two scientists more than welcomed his assistance as they gathered the unresponsive form, took him out of his top part of the suit, and take him into the medical bay. The speedster was now lying shirtless on his left side, which allowed the puncture wound on the right to be higher and closer to the doctor's expert hands.

"Dammit, rookie, you can't do anything the easy way, can't you?" Muttered Ralph in a badly failed attempt to lighten up the mood and wash away some of the awkwardness he was experiencing while standing a few feet from the bed with no idea what to do with himself.

Like he told Barry last year; when he was scared, he made jokes.

"Cisco, hand me the portable scanner," instructed Caitlin, who didn't hear the stretchy man's remark, while she was busy fixing an oxygen mask and connecting a pulse oximeter to her patient's finger.

Just as she suspected, the level of oxygen in Barry's blood was dropping, and his heartbeat was picking up the pace. It was to be expected as these were two symptoms of blood loss. Plus, Barry's breathing was getting a little more arduous and shallow, which wasn't surprising, considering he also almost drowned.

They needed to act fast before the speedster would slip into hypovolemic shock from blood loss.

"Here," said Ralph as he handed over the device himself since the engineer was busy pressing a S.T.A.R. towel on his friend's wound, desperately trying to slow down the bleeding.

Elongated Man cursed under his breath from his clumsiness as he almost dropped the scanner on the floor in the process of hurriedly giving it to the doctor. Swiftly, after the transfer was done, he retracted his shaking hands close to his body to avoid making any more mistakes in the upcoming moments.

Not even wasting breath to thank her friend, Caitlin quickly scanned Barry's side.

"Dammit," she said out loud when the first medical information came to her attention, "the knife lacerated his left kidney, and there's definitely a lot of cut blood vessels. I'll have to get in there and stop the bleeding."

Keeping her distance from all the activity and shaking like a leaf was Nora. The young speedster was feeling numb all over; this wasn't supposed to happen. This didn't happen in her history.

"What have I done?" she whispered to herself as all eyes and ears were on the speedster who was fighting for his life.

"Cisco, you with me. Everyone else out," added the doctor, determination burning in every word, despite her demeanor contradicting her words as she was biting her shaking bottom lip.

Barry was going to be alright; he had to be. Caitlin was going to make sure of that.

One incision. Two incisions. Then, another one. Under the scalpel, the wounded hero didn't move an inch as he was too profoundly under thanks to his injuries and the added sedative to ensure he wouldn't wake up in the middle of the procedure.

'You stay with me, Barry. Don't you dare give up,' thought the doctor through the whole surgery as she was tirelessly working to repair all the damages while keeping a close tab on the low and unstable vital signs.

Not once she dared to speak those words out loud in fear her professional facade will disappear. She needed it to keep treating her patient to the best of her abilities, and that was something she wouldn't be able to do if she was too worried about his survival odds.

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 **A/N: Let me know in the comments if you want more.**

 **Thought I could quickly wrap it up but my fingers wouldn't listen to me...oh well. Gonna need at least another, if not two more, chapter(s). I just hope it was an ok chapter.**

 **Gotta say I'm a little confused about what to do with my 2 others abandoned stories. You voted to keep Eleventh Hour up, but it's been a dead story since chapter 3 and now some of you seem to my Crisis story (Swan Song)..hummm :S**


End file.
